Driveshaft splines

[valkeire]

As part of my Valks annual service this year, I decided to check the drive shaft u/j. I had been getting a slight vibration/rumble on neutral throttle at around 95/100 mph for the past few years. A little more or less throttle made it disappear. But no major worry, I only came across it on trips in Europe. I'd never speed in Ireland 

When I pulled the u/j I was happy to see it was in good order, with a small bit of rust on 2 or 3 splines. Thought I was away with no expense, but when I pulled the shaft out of the splined sleeve on the pumpkin end I found the splines well worn on both the shaft and sleeve. There was a mixture of grease and rust, obviously with no real lube between the splines.

I've heard of the u/j going and the splines on the rear wheel failing, but I haven't heard of the shaft rear splines going? The Valk has only 52,000 miles.

Is this a known fault?

Valkeire

[fudgie]

Scroll up a few tech pages and look for my post about weep holes. Someons had the same issue as you and theres was bad! Alot of rust. I pulled my ds out for the 1st time and it still had grease in the splines but the back was a little rusty. Mine has 47,000 on her. I guess if its over looked it can go bad. 

[steveB (VRCC UK)]

Hi , ground all the splines off my drive shaft and out of the cup on our way home from the Austrian meet last year. Bike had to be rescued before repairing with good second hand one donated by BobbieValk.
Looked like it had never seen grease and this was at 37k, put it down to not inspecting regularly and maybe more power with a blower.
Not a big problem to fix - just a hassle being stranded 500 miles from home.
Suggest replacing with used bits and regrease every tyre change 

[Blackjack]

My driveshaft (Tourer) was replaced at about 74,000 miles in Casper, WY on the way back from a 2-up trip to Alaska. The local dealer charged about $450. Not too bad.

[art]

Its a good idea to check the shaft runout.My shaft had .060 runout from the factory an would vibrate at high freeway speeds..i got to check it when the u-joint went out at 95000mi. I straightened it out in the machine shop where I worked an now it feels like it should.No vibration

[F6Dave]

That little hole is supposed to lube the rear splines (technically they aren't called splines) with oil from the final drive.  But I don't trust that, and grease the heck out of them and every tire change.  The parts look like new with nearly 140,000 miles.

[Scott in Ok]

I am of the opinion that you should pull the final drive and inspect the drive shaft splines and pinion cup each time you change your rear tire.  If your rear tire lasts longer than 10,000 miles, then you should do that inspection every 10k miles.  I rarely have a tire last longer than 10k, so its convenient for me.

Once the rear wheel is off, you remove four nuts and slide it out.  You should be loosening those nuts for re-assembly anyway.

Lubrication for shaft/pinion cup is Moly Grease.
Lubrication for Final Drive splines is Moly Paste.

Obviously there are other options for lubrication, but the above is what is recommended in the manual.

The reason this should be done was posted by John (Blackjack), in his report about riding to Alaska with his wife. In the middle of nowhere and the splines are shot!  They might last 74k like John's, or they might last 20k...but why take the risk?



-Scott